Rangers' Problems Over??

Yeah guys, finally I think the New York Rangers solved their problems today! I’m not talkin’ about the Bure’s comeback – No-No-No! I’m talkin’ about CORY CROSS! On a serious note, Cory Cross really signed a deal with the NY Ranger$ today…

Rangers sign Cory Cross

(tsn.ca)

12/17/2002

The New York Rangers have agreed to terms with free agent defenseman Cory Cross. Terms of the contract were not disclosed.

Cross, 31, has spent the last three seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs, appearing in 50 games last season, registering three goals and nine assists for 12 points, along with 54 penalty minutes.

He ranked fifth on the team with 132 hits and posted a career-high three points (two goals, one assist) on April 10 at MSG. He also collected eight penalty minutes in 12 post-season matches, helping Toronto reach the Eastern Conference Finals.

The 6-5, 220-pounder has skated in 498 career matches with Toronto and the Tampa Bay Lightning, registering 22 goals and 71 assists for 93 points, along with 545 penalty minutes. In addition, Cross has skated in 41 career playoff matches, registering two goals and three assists for five points, along with 42 penalty minutes.

In each of the last three seasons with the Maple Leafs, he has appeared in a minimum of 11 Stanley Cup playoff matches.

While with Tampa Bay, he recorded single season career-highs in all major statistical categories, including games played (75, 1995-96), goals (four, 1996-97), assists (16, 1998-99), points (18, 1998-99) and penalty minutes (95, 1996-97).

With the Maple Leafs in 1999-00, Cross equaled his personal best for goals in a season with four.

The Lloydminster, Alberta native was originally selected by Tampa Bay as its first choice, first overall, in the 1992 NHL Supplemental Draft. He was acquired by the Maple Leafs on October 1, 1999, along with a 2001 seventh round draft choice (Ivan Kolozvary), from Tampa Bay in exchange for Fredrik Modin.

77 Responses to Rangers' Problems Over??

So far he’s traded Brendl, who basically wanted out himself, Novak, and Kloucek.

I wouldn’t call that much of a knack. He brought a great nucleus to the Oilers with his draft picks (Smyth, Comrie, Chimera…) It takes time.

Novak was traded for a needed scorer.

Brendl was going to be traded after his comments against the Rangers anyway.

Kloucek was traded for needed goaltending.

Come on, who else? Where are Neil Smith’s prospects? Nowehere.

Matt Kinch is not ready for NHL action. Aufiero is a rookie in the AHL, no need to rush him. Jeff State is also a rookie in the AHL, same with Weller and Arsene.

I like Lintner, good pick up by Slats. I like Bouchard, good pick up by Slats. Chebaturkin is Bouchard’s age, but a tough guy.

Come on….people bashing at Slats for nothing when the facts show that he had no choice but to sign Cross.

I don’t like Cross at all, i think he is a bum!!! But, $hit happens.

Why don’t you wait 2 years? Wait when Jake Taylor and Guenin (Two Klouceks), Tjutin (top league prospect), Jeff State…hopefully Lampman sings with them, come up in the minors and available for NHL action.

Give his players time. Everyone wants everything so fast.

It’s a joke to point fingers at Sather. Right now he is filling in holes by using money and UFA’s and making some trades. Is it working? No. He made the worst move by hiring and not firing Ron Low.

It takes time to form a good organization, not just three years when you have a bunch of busts in your system and your first year you have untradable trash like Quintal, Kamensy, K. Hatcher….

Your first step is to have more patience.

Don’t listen to all the exaggerated trash talks from expert wannabe’s on this site. Sure, right noe the team is sucking, Slats cannot get it to work….but give him time to work a plan through the system.

Every GM gets that chance….Neil Smith should have seen it coming, he failed and got fired. He wouldn’t have gotten fired had he picked better in drafts.

I don’t particularly like the Rangers because of their spending ways and I am realizing on a daily basis that Sather is not as good as I thought he was.

However, having said that, it is my humble opinion that the NYR GM job is the most difficult job in the NHL. Especially when one considers the state of the franchise after then Neil Smith years. At the time Sather took over the club, there was no other team in the NHL with a dearth of prospects like the Rangers, nor was their another club with financial commitments like the Rangers.

The Ranger fans that ask for a rebuild now have no clue whatsoever. The egos of New Yorkers will not allow it. The expectations in NY are very high and there is no patience for a five year rebuild or even a two year rebuild. The team has to compete every year and a Stanley Cup has to be on the horizon. Sather accepted a job in New York, where he was expected to build a contender without dumping any salary to obtain prospects. (NYR can’t trade stars for prospects!!!! These are the Rangers!! We don’t have to lower ourselves to that level!) He also inherited very few quality prospects. It is truly Mission Impossible – rebuild a team, without moving salary for future players and remain competitive at the same time. Name the team that was able to do this.

Detroit? No. Detroit had years and years of mediocrity even with 150 point man Stevie Y. The foundation of assets that keeps the Red Wings going now was acquired while they sucked for a very long time. They are able to spend big bucks to add talent while retaining prospects drafted late in rounds.

New Jersey? Nope. Please, this was Gretzky’s “Mickey Mouse team” and they earned the title back then. They were able to develop the system and start building from within after many losing seasons.

Colorado? Nope. Anybody remember the Nordiques? They sucked. But they drafted Sakic, Nolan, Lindros, Sundin, Kamensky, Kovalenko, Fiset, Foote, Leschyshyn, Anson Carter and Deadmarsh and used those resources to build a solid team.

There is no successful team in the NHL right now that didn’t have at least a 3-5 yr rebuilding period to get them to a level where they had a chance to sustain some excellence. (The good clubs can hold onto it for extended periods of time, some last only a couple of years)

Everybody loves to rip Sather because he was very good in Edmonton, he won five Stanley Cups, he won a lot of trades and more recently he built a very competitive and cheap hockey club that has managed to survive in a small market. (he also did a lot of bad things in his last three years in Edmonton, but that’s for later.) The fact is, NO GM in the league can save this team without at least a 1-2yr rebuild and I don’t think Sather has the flexibility to do this.

I think the funniest thing about this is that people think they can actually trade him for Kariya. Even if they could pull the trade off it isn’t going to help them much. It will just be another player who is done in by the curse of the Rangers. What a sad franchise

OK, all laughing aside (and I did have a good laugh). Here is something to think about with Cory Cross.

Last year’s playoffs, Leafs vs. Islanders, Cross was injured.

Without Yushkevic and with Cross injured, the Islanders were KILLING the Leafs on the power play. Every goal was the same, a shot from outside and a rebound banged home by someone setting up camp in front of Cujo.

When Cross came back, that stopped. His return was important. No, he is not the second coming of Bobby Orr but the Rangers are hurting, no one is going to ship them a quality D and they can’t afford to trade away all their talent or prospects.

Cross will at least give them a bit of a physical presence on the blueline which they need. This is NOT a bad signing by Sather.

Agree in general. It does take a couple years. A few reasons why I am not crying too much for Sather though.

1) He did not have as few prospects as you claim when he started. Look at the trades he made and prospects they still have left. Not many other teams had that kind of youth to trade away. Obviously the prospects had *some* value. Compare to the Leafs number and quality of prospects for instance…

Yeah exactly two years ago he was coghing pucks. But lately he has tepped up his game. Listen am I saying he is a top 6 defender. Hell no. All ia m saying you put him in the minors, nring him up whenever a injury. He is experienced does a maybe average job, than you send him back down. I rather put him in their than a young guy who ghasn’t player a game in NHL in his life.

Every team in the league can call up youngsters to replace injured players. It’s a fact of life in the NHL.

The good teams have deep farm systems that consistently produce talent (i.e. Red Wings, Flyers, Stars, Devils), and for the amounts of time that certain players are out, they can be easily replaced by younger prospects, no matter how those prospects might be performing.

The bad teams run short of quality talent because they lack the drafting and developing organization, no matter who is running the franchise (i.e. Rangers). There are ten defensemen listed on the Hartford roster. Are you telling me not one of them got any consideration for a call-up? That tells me that not one of those players is better right now than Cory Cross, and that is a scary thought.

Face facts, none of those players has made the Rangers a better team. That is not me being biased, or being “anti-NYR.” That, right now, is a fact.

Neil Smith is not the problem here, Glen Sather is. Slats has stripped the organization of most of its young talent and replaced it with a bunch of overpaid underachievers. That is also a fact. The sooner you realize that, the better off we will all be. T

But seriously, he’s not gonna be a great #3, or even #4 defenseman, but as a #6 or a #7, he’s better than what some teams have, and is probably an upgrade.. if you can put upgrade and Cory Cross in the same sentence 🙂

Not only do you show great work in your posts and comments, but also the smarts and best of all, you’re sportsmanship.

You’re a true hockey fan.

You show both sides, both hands while other pathetic expert wannabe’s want other people to believe in their opinions since they think their opinions are facts.

It DOES take time to build a team. But, obviously some low class level fans show only one hand, and one side.

Go back to Sather’s first year,tell me what he could have done. Trade Kamensky? He tried, but no one wanted him…except the Devils a year later after he was put on waivers twice, but then they acquired him via trade. Kevin Hatcher? Great idea to ship him to Carolina. Langdon? Come on, McCarthy or Langdon? Kirk McLean (he was done). Quintal (whiner).

I mean, he had nothing to work with. The Czech-line was extremely entertaining, but it could have easily been shut down.

What prospects could Slats have used? Kloucek was not ready. Neil Smith’s prospects were horrible, and Lundmark and Brendl were in juniors. Who else? Where are Neil Smith’s prospects who would be 25 years old or so now? Where are they?

Nowhere!!!

So far, Sather’s draft picks have been quite solid, considering the Rangers are around the top 15 on prospects sites. It has only been three years!!! Do you expect prospects to be NHL’ers right away? No!

Sather had to clean up Neil Smith’s trash on the Rangers and in their farm system. This is his 3rd season as Rangers GM, and he’s almost done with that. Plus…he has been adding his players on te Rangers and their system in 3 seasons.

Rangers young nucleus is not ready yet. No need for Sather to rush them.

Right now he is filling holes with UFA’s and players via trade using money. Is it working? No, it’s not and i would be the firts one to admit it. I would also be the first one to say that Sather’s worst move was hiring and not firing Ron Low. He definitely wasted a full season with Ronnie.

What i see in Slats is that he is a long-term type of GM. Holik, 5 years….Kaspar, 6 years. It will be good to have those two for the next years with young guys developping.

But, the extreme anti-Rangers fans, who deny that they are, won’t accept and appreciate your comment. They would not even comment on it as much as well, just say that Sather stinks, this is not the 80’s anymore, and that the Dunham trade was useless. I still don’t see how it is useless to acquire a goaltender when you need one.

?????????

Thing is, 80’s were more than a decade ago and Sather has brought his Oilers 7 times in the 90’s, once winning the Cup even without Gretz. He also managed to acquire key players like Cujo. Come on, the Oilers vs Stars playoff games were awesome!! He managed to acquire Salo for nothing. You like Laraque? He got him. Smyth? You know it. Comrie!!!!!!!!! Same guy. Chimera? He is starting to add a couple at a time.

IT TAKES TIME. Let Sather draft his players. You’d think that would take 3 to 5 years or so to have a good team through draft picks. So, let him do it.

People in NY need to accept the fact that this team needs to fail for awhile on and off the ice, in order to build something for later. Sather has to make some deals that might result in poorer displays on the ice and off the ice in PR. It seems like, if the Rangers aren’t all over every free agent, every year, it’s a travesty. It shouldn’t be that way.

Sather’s made some mistakes in NY and he made some before he left Edmonton. I used to think he was the best GM in the league hands-down. Maybe he was the best for most of his time in Edmonton. But now? Nope, not anymore. However, he’s not nearly as bad as many GM’s in this league.

What do the Germans call this? Schadenfreude? People love watching the big money Rangers fail, but it is getting a little out of hand.

Hey, no doubt. I’m not making excuses, I was just trying to add some balance to the discussion. Is it possible to do what was required in NY? Yes. Was it the hardest job in hockey? Yes. When it’s the hardest job in hockey, you can’t make too many mistakes and when you do they are magnified. Sather has screwed up several times.

Yeah, Sather pissed away a few prospects, but they were never even close to loaded. The Leafs and Rangers prospect management has been about equal. Actually the Leafs acquired a lot of good young players like Jason Smith and Steve Sullivan and they screwed that up too. The Leafs have just been a little better on the tightrope than the Rangers.

The pressure is different too. Leaf fans could turn Barney the dinosaur into a hockey god as long as the team wins. All they care about is results. In NY, you have to have stars that set the Big Apple on fire… and results. NYR have more PR pressure than the Leafs in my opinion. Leaf fans like big stars too, but as long as the team wins, they can make their own.

You’re right, teams like the Devils, Wings, Flyers and so on have their players to call up.

Sather’s players are not ready yet. They are rookies in the AHL, like Aufiero. Bright prospect, but a rookie in the AHL. Same with State, Weller, and Kinch is not a rookie, a sophomore, but not ready yet.

Also the Wolf*Pack have a lot of injuries, they had to call up from the ECHL.

Stop being such a stupid low class bum. No GM can have a deep farm system when he has only drafted for 3 years. STUPID STUPID STUPID!!!!

THOSE ARE THE FACTS…..

I am blaming Smith because Sather had to dump his trashy prospects. Where are Smith’s 25 year olds? GONE, because they SUCK. WHo the hell is Wes Jarvis??? A BUST….that’s all he’s drafted.

You’re right, right now the the new Rangers haven’t been able to push the team far, i’ll admit that. But, don’t be such a stupid jackass with the minor league.

Kloucek wouldn’t have been called up even if Mottau or Chebaturkin were healthy. Why? He is off his game ever since that knee surgery, which is very understandable, but then had a concussion 3 weeks ago. I wouldn’t call him up if he wouldn’t bring his physical game.

Smith would have been ready to trade anyone to get both Lindros and Jagr. He already had a Jagr deal before, but the Pens backed down. Good move by the Pens too since they would have gotten trashy prospects.

“Slats has stripped the organization of most of its young talent and replaced it with a bunch of overpaid underachievers.”

What young talent??? York for another youngster in Poti, he’s leading the defensemen in points. Plus minus is not as bad as people expected. Brendl criticized the organization, he was going to be traded anyway. Novak was Sather’s pick and no better than Tjutin, who will make his debut next season.

What other young talent? Johnsson, but would you rather have had Lindros or Nedved as your first line guy?

You don’t know anything…back down…those are the facts.

I don’t think Sather will trade his own young talent. Maybe i could see one more guy go, probably Shawn Collymore, but Dominic Moore is the Rangers next Mike York (scouting reports compare him to that). Tjutin will be a top defenseman in the organization. Garth Murray, Hollweg, Taylor, Guenin….

Instead of being a failure in trying to be an expert, sit back and let Sather do what every other GM does. Take a few years to builde a young core. Had Neil Smith built a nice young core of talent, he could have kept the job.

I never heard of a GM turning a bad team with a bad farm system around in THREE YEARS.

I may be the Lone Wolf here but this isn’t that bad of a move considering the Rangers defensive situation. Cory Cross is not a great defenceman that goes without saying but he is a capable 5 or 6 guy on most bottom end playoff teams and a 3-5 guy on flat out bad teams. He is not as bad defensivly as many Leaf fans may state. The Rangers are hurting on the blueline and Cross came cheap. Sather dealt alot of his cards away when he had to trade for Dunham when Ricther went down. Considering the cost he came at he is a much safer bet then a guy like Greg Hawgood or someother unsigned blueliner.

As much as I hate the Leafs he was in their top six for three years so he can’t be all that bad.